Today at the APEC CEO Summit in Da Nang, Airbnb—the world's leading community-driven hospitality company—announced it will invest 68 million baht through 2020 to promote and support innovative tourism projects throughout Asia-Pacific.

This commitment is part of Airbnb's vision to strengthen communities through healthy tourism and empower hospitality entrepreneurs across the region.

The fund will be available to organizations—including destination marketing organizations, NGOs, non-profit agencies and community social groups—in need of financial support for innovative tourism projects.

The announcement was made today by Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb Co-Founder, CSO and Chairman of China at the APEC CEO Summit in Da Nang, during a panel discussion on the 'New Job Creators'.

""Airbnb is dedicated to empowering people and communities through healthy tourism, and we have a long tradition of supporting local projects in Asia-Pacific,"" said Nathan. ""We're excited to continue these efforts and support APEC's goal of driving sustainable and inclusive tourism to Asia-Pacific economies.""

Empowering hospitality entrepreneurs

New data shared today also highlights how Airbnb is empowering hospitality entrepreneurs across APEC member economies through healthy travel—authentic, affordable experiences that distribute the economic benefits to more people and more places, and that occur through use of people's existing resources.

New data shows that the Airbnb community boosted APEC economies by 952 billion baht and supported 370,000 jobs across 116 APEC cities in 2016. In the past 12 months, 55 million guest arrivals to APEC member economies were made on Airbnb, while Airbnb hosts in APEC member economies earned about 272 million baht during the same time period.

Bringing APEC member economies together

Data shared today also shows how Airbnb is driving sustainable, inclusive growth through tourism and bringing APEC member economies closer together through travel—a top organizational priority for APEC.

A comparison of Airbnb guest arrivals in 2016 to overall Euromonitor-calculated arrivals that year shows Airbnb already accounting for significant percentages of international arrivals in a number of APEC economies. In terms of international travelers in 2016, Airbnb accounted for at least 5 percent of all arrivals at six APEC member economies: the US (5 percent), Canada (6 percent), Chinese Taipei (8 percent), Australia (11 percent), New Zealand (14 percent), and Japan (15 percent).

All estimates of Airbnb's economic output and the numbers of jobs supported come from the report, ""Airbnb's Global Support to Local Economies: Output and Employment,"" by NERA Economic Consulting. The NERA authors estimate the output and employment supported based on the volume of visitors and host earnings in 200 cities across the world, as well as results from an internal AIrbnb survey of host and guest spending. Using the IMPLAN model, the authors estimate the total direct and indirect economic output associated with Airbnb travel in each local economy. Estimates at the country and regional level are based on aggregations of the city-level figures.

You can read more about 'Airbnb and APEC: Closing tourism gaps with healthy travel' here.

Latest Press Release

Traditionally a time when Thais return to their hometowns to pay respect to their elders by pouring scented water onto their palms and visit a temple to make merit, newly released booking data from Agoda (http://www.agoda.com/?site_id=1811392) suggests...

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is launching its second TAT Newsroom "Blogger Thailand" competition for international bloggers residing in the Kingdom, offering six successful applicants the chance to go on an exclusive three-day...

The Empire State Building (ESB) today announced that it will utilize two EarthCam video cameras to give fans around the world 24/7 access to footage of ESB and of the views from ESB via a livestream on www.empirestatebuilding.com .
One camera is...

Guests wanting to take off with Radisson Rewards can enjoy all the benefits of being a member and redeem their points for airline miles
Radisson Rewards(TM), the global rewards program of Radisson Hotel Group(TM), has expanded its portfolio of airline...

Thai travellers increasingly experiencing cherry blossom season in a unique way by exploring off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods in Tokyo and by immersing themselves in sakura-themed Experiences in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
Based on Airbnb's data, Japan is...